


For You

by Heart_Seoul_Soshi



Category: Descendants (Disney Movies)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-09
Updated: 2018-06-09
Packaged: 2019-05-20 03:29:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,965
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14886774
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Heart_Seoul_Soshi/pseuds/Heart_Seoul_Soshi
Summary: Something's come over Evie, more and more over the past few months. Something dark and frightening that steals away her smile and breaks her will, dulls her eyes and chains her to her bed. Mal doesn't understand it, and doesn't know how to fight it, but that won't ever stop her from taking care of Evie when Evie needs to be taken care of the most.





	For You

**Author's Note:**

> a request from @reginleifk on tumblr

"...E? What's wrong?"  
  
Evie wished she could explain it to Mal. How she could feel it beginning to settle over her mind and body like a thick, inescapable fog, or how it sprang up out of nowhere and pulled her under like a whirlpool. Or even how sometimes she could see and feel it coming from miles away like black clouds on the horizon, uncomfortable static in the air. But Mal would never understand. Even  _if_ Evie could find the words, twist the thoughts to give them a tangible meaning, Mal would never understand.

For the longest time, Mal had no idea what to do when she saw the change starting to come over Evie, when a girl who was smiling pleasantly and full of life one second grew quiet and drawn in on herself the next. Oftentimes she would simply leave Evie alone to crawl under her covers and curl up in bed, even though daylight still shone into their dorm room through the curtains Evie had made the effort to close tight. The faraway stares, the silences, the clipped and one word responses; to Mal, all of it screamed "leave me alone".   
  
So she left Evie alone.  
  
But Mal was clever, analytical, the traits of a leader that came to serve her well as traits of a best friend. She would glance across the room, taking a break from her homework or drawing or what-have-you, and see just  _how_  Evie would curl up in her bed, winding herself tight as if to block something out, protect herself from it. Or as if being crushed under the weight of it.  
  
And it quickly became clear that for Evie, at least, that was not the body language of someone who wanted to be left alone. So this time, when Mal happened to notice that Evie had been sitting at the desk reading the same page for fifteen minutes without the pencil in her hand making a single scratch, the  _"E, what's wrong?"_  was merely a question of reflex. She knew Evie wouldn't give her an answer, heck, she knew she'd be lucky if Evie uttered a single syllable at all. That was perfectly fine, Mal had learned to do all the talking.  
  
"Hey, how about we just forget about the homework, yeah?" she suggested. "E, it's okay if you don't feel up to doing it right now. It's Friday, your homework isn't going anywhere."  
  
"...I don't feel up to doing  _anything_ right now, Mal," Evie murmured, setting her pencil down on the desk.  
  
More than a single syllable. Mal must have been very lucky indeed.  
  
"That's okay too," Mal assured her, hopping down off her own bed and walking over to the desk.  
  
"It's not," Evie argued, glaring down at her textbook somewhat.  
  
"It is. You've already done enough, and you can finish it later."  
  
Mal turned her head over her shoulder to spy the clock on her nightstand. Almost ten at night.   
  
"Let's just go to bed, Evie. I could run you a bath, if you want."  
  
Evie slowly shook her head.  
  
"No thank you," she dully said.   
  
Mal wasn't deterred.  
  
"Okay. Then let's just change into our pajamas and get under the covers, where it's nice and warm."  
  
She held out her hand to Evie, who couldn't bring herself to take it and just rose from the desk on her own, keeping her eyes trained away from Mal the entire time.  
  
Mal followed her into the bathroom, where Evie's pajamas hung on the back of the door and Mal's were haphazardly folded up on the counter. She couldn't help but watch as Evie changed, her motions slow and lagging like she moved on a robotic autopilot.  
  
"...Do you want me to take your makeup off?" Mal asked after pulling her shirt over her head.  
  
Evie looked to the mirror, staring at her reflection absentmindedly like the thought hadn't even occurred to her to take off her makeup for the night. A professional glamor queen such as herself knew better than to leave all that makeup sitting while she slept, yet couldn't find the will to care about it tonight. But, seeing as Mal was offering...  
  
Evie perched on the edge of the counter where Mal's pajamas had just rested, watching her best friend as she made a grab for little cotton pads and makeup remover from the cabinet. Evie closed her eyes and sat perfectly still as Mal's gentle touch wiped carefully at her lids, clearing the eyeshadow away.  
  
"...So, you're having one of those days," Mal conversationally started, breaking the silence.  
  
The need to sit pretty and still for Mal was the only thing that stopped an exhausting sigh from heaving Evie's shoulders.  
  
"I have a lot of those days," she murmured.  
  
"...I've noticed, E."  
  
Evie didn't need makeup or perfectly styled hair, she was indescribably beautiful without it. But still, they were things that she  _liked_  to do. So when Mal took note of more and more mornings where Evie skipped the makeup, didn't care about the hair...it was worrying, to say the least. As Mal rubbed soft circles around Evie's cheeks to take off the blush, it struck her how Evie's incredible smile had been making less and less of an appearance over the past few months. It was almost like a curse, an evil spell cast by some bitter and faceless enemy to sap her strength, take away her happiness.  
  
"...Evie?" Mal whispered. "What is it? Is it someone here at school? Is someone bothering you? Is it  _me?"_  
  
"No, M, of course not," Evie quietly said. "It's nothing, I just...I don't feel like myself lately. I couldn't tell you why."  
  
"You can tell me anything."  
  
"No, I mean...I don't  _know_ why. I wish I did, because if I did, then maybe I'd know how to fix it, but..."  
  
Mal could see the cloud over Evie darkening as they talked about it, and for Evie's sake she settled back into silence as she finished with the makeup remover. And Mal was the one who turned down Evie's bed for her when they clicked the light off and left the bathroom, arranging the pillows just so and for a moment wishing Evie slept with a stuffed animal simply so she'd have something to comfortingly hug and cuddle up with. In lieu of such a thing, Mal climbed up right next to Evie, tucking the covers around them both. In one reach she grabbed the tv remote, Evie's hairbrush, and turned off the lamp on the nightstand. Evie saw her readying the brush out of the corner of her eye, and sat herself up.  
  
The tv flickered before them in the dark, but Evie didn't watch, eyes falling shut as Mal scooted behind her and started brushing out her hair in long, lazy motions. It was easy for Evie to just settle into Mal's lap, another thing she seemed to do on a robotic autopilot.  
  
"Hey, what if we went out tomorrow?" Mal suggested. "Maybe for breakfast, or for lunch, or we could just go shopping..."  
  
Anything to get Evie out of the dorm, out from under the perpetual cloud that lurked around her on the grounds of Auradon Prep.  
  
"You hate shopping," Evie muttered.  
  
"Not when it's with you."  
  
"I don't know, Mal, I had plans to sleep in."  
  
Evie slept a lot more lately than she used to, going to bed earlier and waking up later when she could.  
  
"So? We can go whenever, it doesn't have to be early in the morning," Mal told her.  
  
She took the silence Evie left her with as a "maybe", and when her hair was finished Evie got as comfortable as she could on her pillow and watched the movie playing with a vacant expression.  
  
"...What do you need me to do for you, Evie?" Mal tentatively asked, hoping for  _some_  sort of answer. "I'll do anything to help you feel better."  
  
She rolled over onto her side and snuggled close to Evie, peppering her with gentle touches. Tracing her fingers up and down Evie's arm, rubbing tiny circles on her stomach, brushing a hand down her cheek; all Mal's ways of silently saying  _"I'm here, E. I'm right here next to you."_  
  
"...I think just having you here makes me feel better, Mal," Evie murmured.  
  
"That's good, because I'll be here to take care of you for as long as you need me to."  
  
"Could you just...I don't know, just keep talking to me? It helps to hear the sound of your voice."  
  
Mal smiled to herself, admittedly proud.  
  
"Evie, whatever this is you've been feeling, it won't last forever. It can't, nothing does. Except for you and me, of course. And even if you feel like it sometimes, you're not alone. You've got me, and Carlos, and me, and Jay, and me again..."  
  
Evie actually chuckled. It sounded more hollow than her usual laughter, but still Mal was glad to hear it, taking it as a positive sign.  
  
"You know that whole 'for better or for worse' thing they have here in Auradon? Whether your days get better, or whether they get worse, I'm still going to be here with you," Mal promised. "I'm not best friends with happy Evie, I'm best friends with  _Evie,_  Evie and every single one of her ups and downs. So it's okay if you don't feel like smiling, or laughing. You don't have to do any of that for me. Your smile is incredible, it's true, but even without it you're still beautiful."  
  
"...Sometimes I don't feel beautiful," Evie admitted, rolling over in Mal's arms to bury her voice in her pillow.  
  
Mal just hugged her closer.  
  
"Sometimes you don't see the moon at night, but that doesn't mean it isn't there," she wisely pointed out.  
  
"M, you don't get it. I have no idea how to make any of this stop, it's like there's no way out."  
  
Mal was just full of wisdom tonight.  
  
"You didn't always know how to hold a makeup brush, you figured  _that_  out."  
  
"I was _taught_ that," Evie argued.  
  
"Well you're the one who taught me how to care about you, so if you don't feel up to caring about yourself, I'll do it for you. Just like tonight. I'll brush your hair, I'll run your baths, I'll make your bed and fluff your pillows...I'll treat you like a princess, E. Because that's what you are, and even on rainy days a princess always gets the best."  
  
Evie grew quiet again, apparently lost in her own head. Mal didn't mind, Evie didn't have to keep the conversation going if she didn't want to.  
  
"...If a princess has you then she's already gotten the best," Evie eventually said.  
  
"Stop, you'll make me blush," Mal teased.  
  
That was how they stayed, Evie making a home within Mal's arms and being handily distracted by the absentminded nuzzles Mal made against her ear, into her hair.  
  
"Tomorrow is a new day, Evie. You'll feel better then."  
  
"What if I don't?"  
  
Feeling exceptionally brave, exceptionally caught up in a sudden swell of courage, Mal closed her eyes and placed one soft kiss on Evie's cheek.  
  
"...I'll still be here," Mal said.  
  
No, she didn't know what sort of dark spell or curse had settled over Evie as of late, and she didn't care, either. So long as Evie needed her, needed  _someone,_ Mal would be there. Through every smile and every frown, every laugh and every cry. Maybe it would take an endlessly long time for Evie to get back to her old self, or maybe it wouldn't, but either way, it didn't matter in the slightest to Mal. She would be there.  
  
For better or for worse.


End file.
